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26:12.071N
16:22.88W
Here we are at sea for the first night. The sound
of the VHF radio is buzzing with conversations from boats as they go about
their business. One clear message came across the airwaves from an official, not
sure who as the early part of the conversation was unclear, 'attention all
shipping there are approximately 250 yachts South of the island on a South West
heading - exercise care at all times'. This is a busy time as all the boats
start to pick up their track for St Lucia.
The start of the 'race' was an amazing spectacle.
All the boats jostling for position and GE was in just the right
place.
As if by magic (David and Tony magic) we
approached the line and while there was chaos all around us, GE swept through
the other yachts as if it were parting the waves. We arrived at the line in
perfect time and had, according to David and Tony, one of the best starts
ever. We took the prudent decision to start the race with the Genoa up, no
spinnaker for us. In fact it was a good decision as the air was so confused
through all the sails that those that had taken the more racy approach made no
advantage from it. With only a few boats ahead of us we were off.
Shortly after that we lifted the asymmetric
and really started to move but then came a snag. David tried the generator and
it failed to start. This was very strange as we tried it in harbour and it
worked first time. After about an hour it was going again but by then a
reasonable number of boats had passed us - we were focusing on the work. Having
said that when it was fixed we were back on track and it was a glorious day
with plenty of sun and good winds. We tacked east a bit (towards
Africa) so we could get a good angle to sail South of the Island and
Pascal was in his element catching several of the catamarans - we were cooking
by gas again!
Night fell with a simple meal and we started our
watch system, 3 hours on and 6 hours off - watch A is Pascal and Jackie, watch B
is Martyn and Ian, watch C is Lizzie and Andrew. Watches started at 9pm (A = 9
pm to midnight, B = midnight to 3 am, C = 3 am to 6 am).
In the last hour David (the gaffer) has just
gone to his bunk but we now need to gibe so he has come up on deck again - tough
life for a skipper.
Herb, (call sign 'southbound two') who does a lot
of the weather for the ARC was due to be on at 20:00 on the SSB radio but
we were unable to hear him - maybe tomorrow. Herb is a legend and I will talk
more about him soon.
All is well on the good ship Great Escape. Love to
all from GE.
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